Tashigi Sent Her Men Ahead
by c2t2
Summary: Zoro and Tashigi's battle in Loguetown. (or - Episode 53, I fixed it!)


Title: Tashigi sent her men ahead  
Author: c2t2  
Pairing: Zoro/Tashigi  
Rating: T? Maybe? Nothing explicit, but some stuff implied.  
Warnings: Dubious consent, smexy groping in an alley, and… internalized sexism? Something.  
Disclaim: No own OP. Have no money - dollars, yen, berries, or otherwise.  
AN: No, I didn't actually fix episode 53. In fact, I think I actually broke it. What is it with me and writing screwed-up stuff recently?

As always, explanations are in my livejournal (username squizbee) or find the url on my profile

-.-.-.-

Tashigi sent her men ahead.  
c2t2

-.-.-.-

"So you're Roronoa Zoro. The bounty hunter… the pirate."

Sergeant Major Tashigi was angry. Her fury burned, righteous and pure, warming her in the chill rain.

This scoundrel carried some of the world's most valuable swords… and she had _helped_ him. Or at least it felt like she had. Sergeant Major Tashigi proceeded to tell the pirate Roronoa exactly what she thought of him. She would confiscate Wado Ichimonji. The others as well. And he would rot in Impel Down for his deception.

The pirate Roronoa replied with a maddening smirk.

Sergeant Major Tashigi drew steel, and struck.

Blocked. Their blades were crossed, and the pirate Roronoa showed no sign of strain, visibly needed no effort to hold back her sword. He didn't even seem to be paying attention to the fight, his expression unreadable, his eyes watching her face, searching for something, something she didn't understand. He was unfocused, his mind far away.

Intolerable.

Sergeant Major Tashigi grimaced and pushed as hard as her female body would allow. The pirate Roronoa's blade didn't budge so much as a hair's width.

Unacceptable.

Their blades disengaged with a scream of metal, and the pirate Roronoa countered with a simple, easy overhand strike.

He was fighting her like she was a child.

Unforgivable.

Sergeant Major Tashigi blocked effortlessly and with flawless form. His eyes were still locked on her face, expression carefully blank. What was he_ doing_?

He smirked at her again.

_Unforgivable_!

One of the other pirates (a _pirate_!) scolded Roronoa for striking at a woman. Sergeant Major Tashigi politely asked them to go away. They hesitated. Then the pirate Roronoa told them to leave. They left.

Wasn't the boy in the straw hat their leader? What kind of chain of command did they have, that a brainless sword-swinger could bark orders at _his own captain_, and be obeyed?

Her men made their presence known. She ordered them to follow the pirates, to capture them, that she would take care of things here.

Sergeant Major Tashigi sent her men ahead, and they quickly disappeared into the darkness and the rain.

At least her men followed _her_ orders.

Now it was just the two of them in the empty alley. The pirate Roronoa casually took one of his hands off Wado Ichimonji's hilt, one arm easily keeping the downward pressure on her blade, locking her in place.

Maddening strength.

The pirate Roronoa slowly, almost tauntingly, inched his free hand toward the other two blades sheathed at his side.

Sergeant Major Tashigi was baring her teeth in an undignified snarl, and the pirate Roronoa gave that infuriating smirk one last time. He drew steel, and struck.

For the next few moments it was all Sergeant Major Tashigi could do to keep her body in one piece. She struggled to maintain her footing on the wet ground, to keep her grip on her sword in the downpour. His attacks were just barely on the edge of her ability to handle, and Sergeant Major Tashigi had the horrible suspicion that he was holding back, that he was _deliberately_ fighting at her skill level.

Sergeant Major Tashigi was too desperate to pay attention to her surroundings. The wall slammed into her back, and that was the end.

Sergeant Major Tashigi barely restrained herself to a small gasp as her sword went flying across the alley. Cold steel kissed her cheek as the pirate Roronoa turned his blade to miss her at the last moment.

Several moments passed, silent except the pounding rain.

"Why didn't you kill me!" she shouted. The pirate Roronoa had, instead, chosen to mortally wound Sergeant Major Tashigi's pride. "Is it because I'm a woman? Even though women's arms are weaker, it's humiliating for _anyone_ to go easy in a duel! You have no idea what it's like to wish you had been born a man!"

Sergeant Major Tashigi didn't know why she was ranting at the pirate Roronoa.

During her outburst, the pirate Roronoa's body had begun to tremble. For the first time, true anger darkened his features, and he turned the blade so the edge just barely rested against her cheek. He pulled back, a millimeter at most, but the blade's razor edge sent a shock through Sergeant Major Tashigi's body. The wound was as small as a papercut, and just as painful.

"I HATE the fact that you exist," Roronoa hissed. Tashigi's eyes widened and she went completely still. "How dare you have the same face as my dead friend - _How dare you_ say the same things she said!" His hand on the blade shook, a single wrong twitch and her face would be sliced to the bone. "How dare you mock her memory like this?" With that, Roronoa lifted the blade away from Tashigi's face, and sheathed it at his side.

Tashigi's fear turned to anger, and she lost her temper at Roronoa. She didn't care what kind of hang-ups he had from his childhood, she lived for herself, and her goals were hers alone.

In the middle of her rant, Tashigi found herself crushed against the wall.

Her head snapped back, and she was being kissed with bruising force. The air was forced from her lungs between the hard brick wall at her back and the equally solid wall of muscle pinning her there. Tashigi tried to bite down, desperate to breathe, but Zoro pulled back just in time, and she gasped for air before her breath was taken away again – in a new way.

Tashigi's body betrayed her. Her body had always betrayed her, but this was not the betrayal she was accustomed to. Her head had tilted further back without meaning to, like some kind of submissive doormat. He was kissing her again, and while she was not exactly responding, she was _letting him_. Tashigi was hyperaware of every point of contact between them. Zoro's unbelievably strong lips and tongue were doing things to hers, a body hot and hard, skin that smelled like sun and clean sweat, battle-rough hands gripping her upper arms and holding her shoulders against the wall. One of his knees had ended up between her legs, and the muscle of his thigh pressed against parts of her that Tashigi had nearly forgotten about during her career-focused life. She had no leverage to slam her knee into tender areas, and she was afraid that she wouldn't do so even if she could. Her legs trembled. Every slight shift of his body against hers sent tingling heat spreading through her belly and thighs. Core muscles that Tashigi didn't know existed were flexing on their own will. Butterflies in her stomach, embarrassing wetness between her legs, heart pounding like a schoolgirl with a crush. Wobbly-kneed and weak, like she was… well…

Her body had betrayed her. Tashigi was used to her body refusing to grow stronger the way men's bodies did so easily. Now here she was. Her eyes had closed and her hands had fisted in Zoro's shirt, not to hold him close, she told herself, but to keep her balance as he was pulling back slightly.

One of Zoro's arms wrapped around her waist to support her.

While one arm easily held her up, the other brushed against her belly, then down further. It was almost as if he was asking permission… at this point, after going this far! The hand undid the front of her pants and slipped inside. Tashigi broke the kiss (when had she started kissing him back?) and clenched her teeth so she would not scream and whimper, weak and feminine, as wonderful pressure began to build in her body.

At this point, Tashigi accepted that she was holding none of her balance. So her hands released Zoro's shirt, slid beneath the fabric, and fingertips began to press into and memorize each curve of hard muscle that she would never have.

No wonder Zoro had overpowered her. She never had a chance.

Tashigi reveled in the raw power under her fingertips, the texture of smooth skin, raised scars.

The pressure building inside Tashigi's body crested, crashed over the edge, and stars exploded behind her eyelids. When Tashigi was finally able to focus on reality again, she found that her face was wet. How had the rain reached her under the building's eaves and through Zoro's solid form?

Zoro pulled back suddenly. "Whoa, are you okay?" The sensation of his fingers abruptly leaving her nearly made Tashigi cry out. "Hey, say something!"

Oh, the wetness on her face was tears? She really _was_ crying like some emotional woman. She ought to be labeled unstable and discharged from the marines. Diagnosis: Hysterical female.

At some point Zoro's serious demeanor had broken and he was babbling "Look, I'm really sorry I kind of forced myself on you. I'll get down on my knees and beg forgiveness if you want. I made a promise to my captain, or else I'd let you take me prisoner here and now. Boy, was I a total ass. I'll go away and never bother you again if that…"

"No!" That seemed to shut him up. Tashigi put her hands over her face and took slow breaths to calm back down. Composed, she took a step forward, pretending not to notice Zoro suppress a flinch. She looked him in the eye, trying to ignore both of their flustered conditions. "Why?"

Zoro looked away, "I'm really sorry. You seem so focused on your job, so I thought you were single and I don't know why I just jumped you like that – I really don't…"

"Your friend… the one who looked and spoke like me… she was your lover?"

Zoro looked even more uncomfortable, "No, she died when we were just kids. I'm really sorry I-"

"Then," Tashigi cut him off again, "the other option is cruelty. It's not enough to physically overpower me, you had to demonstrate that being a woman is a weakness in other ways as well."

Now Zoro looked utterly baffled. "What the hell-? …You know what, never mind. You go find whatever's left of your men and scrape them off the pavement. I'll go back to pirating, and you can hate me all you want because I deserve it. Deal?"

Tashigi was not quite ready to go back to being the Marine Sergeant Major, sworn enemy of bounty-hunter-turned-pirate Roronoa.

Whatever Zoro was going to say next was cut off as she, Tashigi-the-woman, slowly traced one fingertip over the line of skin showing above his collar. Zoro appeared to be stupefied, so Tashigi became bolder. She pressed one palm flat against his chest, slowly slid it up, up over his shoulder and around the back of his neck. She considered pulling him down into a kiss, but decided against it and simply leaned into him. Even as confused as he was, Zoro's arms awkwardly wrapped around her as she relaxed into the embrace for several long moments.

When she pulled back, the iron was back in Marine Sergeant Major Tashigi's eyes, and the pirate Roronoa's face immediately closed off all expression except an unnerving and wicked smirk.

"Leave before I change my mind and kill you, pirate scum!" Sergeant Major Tashigi barked.

"As if you could, government lapdog."

"Next time you'll be begging for mercy."

"Oh _really_?" the emphasis he put on the words were slightly suggestive, and Sergeant Major Tashigi fought down a blush.

The pirate Roronoa vanished into the shadows.

Sergeant Major Tashigi straightened her disheveled clothing, then left to find Captain Smoker and whatever was left of their men.


End file.
